Dear Subscribers,

I cannot remember any time when there were so many people dealing with so many health issues! Naturally, there have been heaps of questions so this is a generic response to one of the variations of questions concerning digestion, assimilation, and elimination. The answers will be based at least in part on the Ayurvedic system of medicine.

Everyone has some limit to what is called "digestive power" and this is due to a stellium of factors such as the body's ability to produce gastric secretions, age, stress and even the time of day. Some people are born with more digestive power and some with less. This ability is measured more by hydrochloric acid, bile, and enzymes than in terms of the conversion of calories to useful nutrients. The secretions are churned with the food (and medicines) and this stage of the process either goes smoothly or runs into hitches. Some people cannot digest certain foods, but in general, some foods are harder to digest than others. For instance, old food, food that has been refrigerated and then reheated and perhaps put back into the fridge and then heated again and maybe even again is an example of old food, but food that is preserved might also be considered old. It is devitalized and lacking prana and therefore is not contributing very much to the conversion process that is necessary if vital nutrients are to be extracted from the meals. Food that is microwaved is harder to digest than food that is cooked over an open flame and gas is a better method of cooking than electricity. According to many accounts, solar cooking is better than either gas or electricity and this is easy to believe.

Repeating somewhat, anything that is hard to digest requires more digestive effort and if something does not digest "normally", it is broken down by fermentation which produces gas and discomfort and probably also some measure of candida. Food may be prepared nicely and be easy for most people to digest but if too much is consumed at one sitting, there will be unpleasant consequences. Some people are under stress from overwork or exertion, emotional tension, electromagnetic disturbances, ill health, side effects of medications, or even too much of an otherwise good "thing". Recognizing when digestive power is weak is the first step towards avoiding unpleasant aftermath. This may mean skipping a meal, eating less than normal, or eating something very simple to digest such as fruit or fruit juice. Foods that are acidic compensate a bit for lack of digestive power so even when exhausted, fruit usually "sits well". However, there is a very important rule in Ayurveda that is wise to remember: do not eat anything until the previous meal has been digested because if that meal is still in the churn or putting off gases, one does not want to add insult to injury.

Lately, a number of quite cachexic patients have asked what to eat. I would seriously look into fruit- or juice-based diets such as those of Rudolf Breuss or Johanna Brandt. It is more than possible to live comfortably on fruit but like any fast, the first day or two are the most difficult because habits, cravings, and some detoxification interfere with will power and sometimes discipline. Usually, fasting is easy after the first days. I have lived long enough to have seen some remarkable cures attributed to fasting, but I think what works for one person may fail for another since people are different.

One major difference I have noted relates to the burden of toxic metals, mercury in particular but any toxic metal is potentially troubling. These metals are toxic because they are not stable so they set off cascades of chain reactions that lead to free radicals . . . that are, in turn, associated with many (or all) degenerative processes. The spectrum here goes from people who have never had exposure to toxic metals meaning they never had amalgam (silver) fillings, vaccines with Thimerosal, or even exposure to these new diabolical light bulbs. I suspect you can count these people on one hand. Then, there are those who had the exposure but have undergone some degree or other of chelation therapy, oral or intravenous. Next, there are those who had the exposure but are good excreters, and finally, there are those who have neither managed to excrete the metals nor chelated and these people usually have a host of health problems, ranging from candida to severe neurological impairment.

This type of toxicity has been a nightmare for me as a health advocate because removing./replacing mercury fillings is both expensive and not without risks. For instance, I know of breast cancer patients whose markers soared after removing the amalgams, some who had been stable but died within weeks of removal, not because of the anesthesia or trauma but probably because estrogenic substances were used to replace the amalgams. Both composites and bonding agents are highly estrogenic. So, it has seemed safer in general to chelate what has been mobilized from the teeth and to leave the fillings alone until the patient has the margins to cope with the procedures. Everyone asks what I recommend instead of amalgams and I have been pretty consistent about Cerecs; however, even though the restoration material is stable and inert, the bonding agents are dangerous. I told my dentist that the bonding agent made Menopause feel like a breeze!

Cerecs are similar to porcelain restorations in that they are glued to the tooth whereas composites are put in place more like amalgams. There are probably no perfect dental solutions but not everyone can regenerate a tooth though I know of cases in which this occurred through remineralization using dolomite or some other powdered mineral and being really consistent for months and months and months. I saw a slide presentation in which someone claimed to have achieved the same results using one of the Ormus products. Then, of course, there are the kalpa stories of yogis who got entirely new sets of teeth after 40 days of special therapy in completely darkened rooms. For most, these solutions are not likely to be chosen, but others might want to try them.

Symbiosis

There is a theory that various organisms have some sort of symbiotic relationship in which they benefit each other. While I am 100% certain that this is true in certain instances, we have to look at human health from the angle of the role these organisms play in our bodies, not the broader relationship of who eats whom and why. What you see in the observable world is that fungi break down both organic and inorganic materials, including nuclear waste. It's hard to imagine what this world would be like if the trash we generate could not be broken down. Why we have to keep funding studies that prove that synthetics or something else promote fungal diseases is curious because we actually know that fungi are tasked with the decomposition of everything so we are going to find it whenever the host organism is in a state of decline. This decline leads to degradation and eventually disappearance. It's actually pretty simple.

What one sees in live blood is that very brave white blood cells attack what appear to be some sort of consequence of metallic poisoning. One dentist referred to these as cations. I am starting to think they are free radicals, but whatever they are, they are evidence of the presence of toxic metals. Think of your white blood cells as perfect, loving mothers. I believe they are matriarchal, protective, and generous to the point of being self-sacrificing. They are so selfless and they die by the thousands with metallic poisoning. As if this were not bad enough, anything that kills them also kills bacteria, friendly and pathogenic. So, the problem with amalgams and Thimerosal and other metals such as the barium and aluminum in chemtrails is that the immune system is being wiped out along with necessary bacteria, bacteria that play positive roles in digestion and elimination. Who survives? Fungi!

Now, in the presence of toxic metals and poor digestion, demolition of your meal is carried out by yeast instead of the normal chemicals and the same happens in the lower intestine. It also happens in the blood. If a parasite dies, no bacteria are alive to eat the corpse so the dead animal floats around in the plasma, gradually fermenting and throwing off bubbles while the yeast does its work. What is left in the plasma for the erythrocytes? They dine on yeast, not wholesome at all for them and the yeast naturally dines on the hemoglobin. It's actually catastrophic.

The Ayurvedic theory of digestion is that all transformation is carried out under the aegis of fire, called agni in Sanskrit. If one is a fire type, the output of gastric secretions is above average whereas water types underproduce the third chakra secretions but have more secretions relating to the second chakra, the reproductive center. The rule for air types is that everything is variable but the staying power is short. Where food is concerned, you sometimes see air types who feel they are ravenously hungry but after just a few bites, they are pushing food around on their plates and not putting much into their mouths. I suppose "your eyes are bigger than your stomach" was coined specifically for these types. Earth types are more similar to water types but often just somewhat better able to produce gastric secretions than water types.

Food also has a mixture of elements and relative position on ease of digestion scale. For instance, acids cause food to be sour and these increase the fire element. Let's be concrete. Take something like yoghurt. It is sour and relatively easy to digest compared to refrigerated milk which in turn is easier to digest than ice cream. If milk is heated with spices like peppercorns and cardamom, it is more digestible than cold milk but still less digestible than yoghurt. Spices are of course hot, but they are also carminative, meaning that they relieve gases. In my estimation, food that is cooked with spices is easier to digest than food that is bland or food that has some pepper sprinkled over it after cooking, but spices do not make food quite as easy to digest as acids. However, they are much more effective in relieving the complications of indigestion.

Food that is cold is harder to digest than food that is warm. Food that is moist is easier to digest than food that is dry. A small amount of salt improves digestion by aiding production of hydrochloric acid and absorbing moisture. Food that is astringent (because of tannins) is dry and hard to digest. In extreme cases, the mouth puckers up and even swallowing is hard. Some herbs are quite astringent, but tea is the most common astringent article in our normal culinary routine. Certain legumes and beans are at least somewhat astringent and we know they are hard to digest unless cooked with spices and usually some high quality oil, such as ghee. This leaves two more tastes: sweet and bitter. Most food is at least partially sweet which is what makes it nutritive. Rather fewer herbs are sweet and even if called "sweet", that is a relative term. For example "Sweet Annie" is not as bitter as wormwood, but it is hardly anything like honey. The bitter taste comes from alkaloids and some are very, very bitter. The most famous is perhaps rue, but lots of herbs are bitter. Madagascar periwinkle has the mother lode, the most variety of alkaloids known and it is really, really bitter. Interestingly, it is used in indigenous medicine for diabetes, but consumed as a tea. Bitters help to antidote sweets and they are detoxifying and very important in herbal medicine. Like people, foods and herbs have ratios of elements. Turmeric is usually considered to be a spice so people think of it as pungent, but it is also quite astringent and bitter. Cinnamon on the other hand is both hot and sweet so even children tolerate it well. Think about it for a moment. Cinnamon is actually much hotter than turmeric, but children like it because it is quite sweet. Cloves however lack that sweetness so even if some therapeutic and energetic similarities exist, the taste and ultimate actions are different.

It is not necessary to become a chemist in order to eat well. Just pay attention to your own taste buds and learn the energetics of the six main tastes: sweet, sour, pungent, salty, bitter, and astringent.

Many blessings,

Ingrid

Copyright by Ingrid Naiman 2011

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